Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

I'm a pilot, too - so I understand your situation!

The Texas "Standard Possession Order" that is incorporated into most divorce decrees is designed for people with "normal" jobs, who work Monday through Friday, and have weekends off. This does not always work well for people like us, who have a non-standard work schedule.

Fortunately, this language can be modified to suit your particular situation, in keeping with the intent of the statute to "encourage frequent contact between a child and each parent for periods of possession that optimize the development of a close and continuing relationship between each parent and child". So, if your seniority does not allow you to hold weekends off, you could incorporate language in your decree that reflects your days off.

The language does need to be specific in terms of days of the week, etc. in order to create some sort of consistent routine for the children, so you may have to bid your schedule to give you the same days off every week as much as possible. If you can only hold days off in the middle of the week, it does make it harder for you to spend much time with your kids, because of their school schedule, but you do the best you can.

Hopefully, you and your spouse can agree on an arrangement that makes sense for you, and gives your children the opportunity to spend a reasonable amount of time with each of you. I can help you draft the appropriate language to include in your decree. Good luck!